Theses and Dissertations Collection

Increasing wildfire activity and an expanding wildland-urban interface (WUI) have produced a condition where wildfires are destroying thousands of homes annually and decimating land management budgets. To explore potential solutions for this issue, five wildfire events across the western U.S. were evaluated to examine the relationship between homes burning and pre-fire canopy cover in the 30-meter home ignition zone (HIZ). We found that only two of five fires showed strong relationships between canopy cover and home loss, with the other three exhibiting moderate to weak relationships. These results suggest that canopy cover is not a consistent driver of homes burning in timbered WUI environments, as well as point to the complex, interacting factors intrinsic to home ignitions. The findings indicate that reducing canopy cover in the HIZ may not be as important for preventing home loss as other measures that deter ignition from airborne embers or surface fires.